The Age of Non-believing: Petunia's Story
by Julietz Star Gazer
Summary: How I think Petunia came to hate magic so much.


Title: The Age of Non-believing: Petunia's Story  
Genre: Drama  
Rating: G  
Summary: How I think Petunia came to hate magic so much.  
  
IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!  
I would like to thank personally my wonderful beta-reader Rachel for doing a absolute flawless job, and helping me with the dialect!!!!!! I am forever grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
The Age Of Non-Believing  
Petunia's Story  
  
"Ready or not, here I come!" Petunia Evans yelled loudly from behind  
the big oak tree in her yard. Peaking around cautiously, she gazed sharply  
around at the silent back garden for any sign of her little sister or  
neighbor. Lily Evans, Sirius Black and Petunia were playing hide-and-seek, and  
at the moment, the two younger ones were hiding. Petunia crept around the side of her brick house, and strained her hearing. Coming from the rose bushes a few feet away, a muffled giggling could be heard. She grinned to herself, slid up to the bush and pulled back the front branches.   
  
"Gotcha!" she yelled, with a look of triumph on her face. Lily giggled and leap- frogged out of the bushes, her red hair flying around her face.  
  
"Where's Sir?" she asked, glancing around.  
  
"I don't know," Petunia told her, also looking for the dark haired  
boy,"help me find him."  
  
Lily nodded, and they continued their search together. Their game went  
On for a while longer, until they finally found Sirius behind the big  
rubbish bins. He stepped out, grinning triumphantly at the two sisters for his  
having evaded them for such a long time.  
  
"Want to play again?" he asked cheerfully pushing his hair back from  
his face.  
  
"Nah, lets have a picnic!" Lily suggested brightly.  
  
"Yea! Good idea! Come on, lets go and get the blankets!" Petunia said,  
skipping happily towards the house. It was a warm, bright summer day with only a slight breeze, just enough to keep them from dying of a heat stroke.  
Petunia was 11, Lily, just behind her, was 10 and so was Sirius. It  
Was Lily's birthday today though, so technically she was 11, but she was  
waiting for 3:35 to come around. That's what time she was born, her mother told her. Petunia had bright blonde hair and clear blue eyes. Even at twelve she wasn't the prettiest child, but she was always content to let Lily be  
the pretty one. And Lily was beautiful. She had a cap of long red hair and  
a sparkle of mischief in her big green eyes. They both had creamy  
colored skin and almost always a hug smile adorned their faces. Sirius was a very handsome young boy, the kind who always had his cheeks pinched by his aunts. He had blonde, wispy hair, with brown eyes and tanned skin. He was a cheeky lad, and a practical joker. All three were happy living as they were, in the suburbs outside of Wales. School had been over for over a month and the three of them spent their days together, soaking up the sun and having a great time together. Lily and Petunia stopped to wipe their feet on the mat, but Sirius just kept walking into the house.  
  
"Sirius.?" Mrs. Cresia Evans asked, looking down at him fondly.   
  
He thought for a moment then with a blush returned to the mat and began wiping his feet off also. Mrs. Evans smiled and returned to her work.  
  
"Mummy, mummy!" Lily cried as she leapt onto her mothers lap.  
Mrs. Evans caught her daughter and smiled at the little red head.  
  
"Mummy, me and Petunia and Sir want to have a picnic! Oh can we mummy?   
Pleeease?" Mrs. Evans looked at Petunia, who was nodding her head.  
  
"Oh I suppose so, since its Lily's birthday. Petunia, dear, would you  
go get some sandwiches? Lily you get some drinks and I'll go and get the  
blanket," she replied putting her sowing away.  
  
"Please, Mrs. Cresia, what do I do?" Sirius asked from his place on  
the mat.  
  
She thought for a minute, then grinned. "You can go and pick us out a shady spot to sit at, OK?"  
  
He nodded, and charged back out the door whooping like an Indian Brave. After they had gathered all their supplies, they headed out the door after  
Sirius.Finding him, they lay the blankets down and crawled on top of them.  
Mrs.Evans pulled out plates and served sandwiches, while Lily passed drinks  
around. For a while they were quiet enjoying the warm sun. Mrs. Evans paused  
to check her watch.  
  
"Lily, you will be 11 in ten minutes!" she told her excitedly.   
  
Lily's eyes widened happily. Mrs. Evans ran inside to get Lily's present, while  
Sirius and Petunia sang Lily 'Happy Birthday'. It had been Lily's choice not  
To have a birthday party, since Petunia and Sirius were her best friends anyway. Lily's mum returned with a medium sized box and set it before Lily.  
Lily ripped open the package, and gasped in delight.  
  
"A tea set! Oh thank you mummy, Petunia!" Lily hugged both her mum and  
her sister. Sirius shyly handed her a little package. Opening it she found a  
bracelet with a clear wire chain and one solitary green jewel on it.  
  
"Oh Sir, its beautiful!" she cried, slipping it on her wrist.  
Hopping over to him, she kissed him on the cheek and he blushed crimson. Mrs. Evans laughed heartily at this.  
  
Checking her watch again she said, "10 seconds, darling!"  
  
"10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... I'm 11!!!" Lily  
yelled out so loudly the whole neighborhood could hear!   
  
She hopped up and down excitedly. Plopping back down beside her mother, she giggled at the prospect of being older than Sirius. Suddenly, a large object stopped her giggling. She gasped, and pointed as a large brown owl swooped down out of the sky, and alighted right in front of their blanket. Speechless, they looked at each other and then back at the owl. It clicked its beak impatiently, and held out its right leg. It was only then they realized there was a note attached to it. Ignoring her mother's protest, Lily crept up to the owl and untied it slowly, like she was disarming a bomb. After it had been freed of its burden, the owl quickly clamped up the rest of Sirius's sandwich in his beak, and took to the skies again. Lily looked down at the letter in her  
hands.  
  
"What does it say?" Petunia asked shuffling forward to see.  
  
"Lily Evans," Lily mumbled out loud, reading her own name on the front  
of the envelope in rich green ink. Ripping it open she pulled out a letter and began to read.  
  
"HOGWART'S SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY  
  
Headmaster; Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)  
  
Dear Miss Evans,  
We are delighted to inform you that you have a place at Hogwart's  
School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September; we await your owl by no later then July 31. Yours Sincerely,  
  
Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress  
  
  
Lily's gaze shifted from one bewildered face to another. No one spoke  
until Sirius, who no longer looked puzzled but amazed, exclaimed, "Lily! I  
thought you were a Muggle!" The expression on Lily's face didn't change.  
  
"A what?" she asked, still clutching her letter.  
  
"A Muggle, you know, a person with no magical blood," Sirius answered  
rolling his eyes as if this was the most obvious thing in the word. "My  
dad was a muggle. But my mum was a witch. She went to Hogwarts herself, she did. I've been waiting to get my letter for almost three years now. And you're going too! I never would have guessed it, Lily Evans!" Sirius leaned his head back and lauged. "This is going to be so great!"  
  
"Wait, my mum and dad are both muggies- or whatever you called them-  
so how did I get to be chosen?" Lily asked, only slightly less confused.  
  
"Oh Lily, who cares? Dot you know what this means?" Sirius jumped up  
and grabbed her hands. "We are going to the best school there is to study  
magic!"  
~*~*~*~*~*~*  
Since that day, Sirius and Lily talked of nothing else. Sirius and  
his mother were going to take Lily to a place called Diagon Alley to buy  
her wand, robes, schoolbooks, potions ingredients and other things she  
would need. Petunia tried hard to feel happy and excited for her sister and Sirius both (who's letter did come, on his 11th birthday, just like Lily's) but it  
was getting harder whenever they talked about the castle and the subjects  
they would be taking. Sirius told them about how the castle looked, according to his mother. He described the Forbidden Forest, the long corridors, the walking suits of amour, the talking and moving pictures and the Great Hall. Petunia even cried the day she got her own list of schoolbooks she would need for her school this year.  
  
"Math, English, Science, History..." She trailed off, comparing her  
list with Lily's.  
  
A tear ran down her cheek as she asked herself again for the  
thousandth time, "Why wasn't I chosen to go to Hogwarts too?"  
  
It was true. Petunia was terribly jealous of Lily and Sirius. She wished  
she was going to Diagon Alley to get her school things. She wanted to  
go away to a far away castle to study magic. She had always been content  
to let Lily take the spotlight, so she could stand in the background. Lily had  
always been the one chosen for everything, and Petunia hadn't minded  
until now. Everything seemed so unfair to her. She was just as good as Lily was, and she would make a good witch, she knew it. She watched the skies  
anxiously every day just in case, she thought, they had accidentally forgotten  
her. But her owl never came. And she grew bitter towards her sister. She  
Could barely talk to her without snapping at her. Lily tried to get her to tell her what was bothering her, but she would just roll her eyes and say nothing was bothering her. Even though Lily did her best to make Petunia feel better, they grew apart.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The time had finally come for Lily to go. They stood at King's Cross  
Station on September 1st, all packed and saying their good- byes.  
Lily's face was flushed as anxiety and extreme excitement fought for  
dominance in her stomach. She wheeled her trolley around to face her  
mother, father and Petunia, who was trying her best to look bored out of her  
mind. Her mother and father both swept her into a long bear hug as they went  
through the whole "We will miss you"; "we love you"; "Do your homework";  
"Are you sure you have enough clean underwear?" routine. She finally  
broke away as they went to get some last minute details from Sirius's mum.  
Lily stepped hesitantly towards Petunia.  
  
"Won't you tell me what is wrong?" she asked in a last ditch effort.  
  
"How many times do I have to tell you? There is nothing wrong!'  
Petunia snapped loudly.   
  
Lily stepped back like she had been struck.  
"Well," she faltered, "good bye, then."   
  
She stepped up again and they hugged briefly and stiffly. She wheeled her trolley over to where Sirius was calling for her to join him. They waved at their parents one last time. Lily tried to tear her eyes away from Petunia's expressionless face, but she couldn't. Leaning up against the barrier, she kept the invisible connection locked between her and her sister until she felt herself falling through the wall. Petunia blinked and looked away from the place her sister had stood two seconds earlier. She was gone.  
  
"Well and good riddance," Petunia whispered to herself savagely.  
  
Although deep down she knew she didn't mean it. Turning around, she stalked out of the train station and back to their car.  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Lily was in love with school and her classes. Except History of Magic,  
taught by Professor Binns, who was old and boring. She had been sorted into Gryffindor and had made friends easily with all the first years. There were three other girls besides her, Jeannie Reese, Christina McGee and Leslie Finnigan. There were three 1st year boys besides Sirius, named Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and James Potter. Their teachers told this group of eight often that they had never seen such mischief in a group of first years. So they formed the Maurdaurs, a group of mischief-maker extraordinaires. Although Lily was having a great time at Hogwarts she missed her sister deeply. They had been best friends for as long as she could remember, now Petunia wouldn't even answer her owls. She sometimes wondered if they would ever be friends again. She had been thinking all this, sitting in a pouf chair beside the fire in the Gryffindor common room, when James Potter ran up and jumped in her lap. The thought vanished as she laughed and pushed him off onto the floor. They ran to find the others to wreak more havoc onto the school together.  
Life for Lily was good.  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Petunia stared lifelessly down at the math worksheet she was doing in  
class. It had been a month since she had started school, and already  
her parents were asking her if everything was OK. And it wasn't. No longer  
was she the happy, carefree, little girl that had lived in their house that  
summer, but a quiet, unhappy, person had replaced her. From the first day at  
her school, she was taught by the other girls that dolls and imagination  
were unheard of, now that they were fourth graders. They talked of boys and  
shopping, of the joys of getting to wear makeup and all the other "grown up"  
things. Petunia shared these conversations with them, laughed when she was  
supposed to, stayed silent when she was supposed to. But deep down she was  
yearning to be a kid again. After a while, she grew accustomed to acting older than she was, and She looked down on anyone who showed any interest in things that were not considered to be cool. Imaginations were things that you weren't supposed to have if you didn't want to be made fun of. Petunia watched and learned from the other girls how to put others down, to hate and despise anything out of the ordinary, and she was molded into the image that she thought she should be. She had been concentrating so hard on living up to these new standards She had forgotten her sister was coming home for Christmas the next day. She held the event in the lowest esteem possible.  
  
"Freak," she muttered to herself thinking about her sister. "I cant  
believe she went off to that..that place!" she told herself, "I can't let  
anyone from school know that my sister is a witch. I would never be popular  
again!"  
  
For a moment she felt a slight pang of guilt about talking about her  
Sister so badly, but she just shrugged it off. She had to pack; the girls were  
having a sleepover.  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
Lily was excited about going home. She had missed her parents and she  
hoped her sister and her could make up all that had happened between them;  
although she wasn't quite sure what had happened. Taking a deep breath,  
she stepped quickly through the barrier at Kings Cross Station, and looked  
around. Her mother was standing a few feet ahead, holding her arms out. Lily  
raced to her and jumped into her arms hugging her fiercely  
.  
"Oh Precious, I have missed you so much!" Mrs. Evans told her. Lily  
nodded her agreement.  
  
"Where are daddy and Petunia?" she asked, looking around.  
  
"Daddy had to work," she said slowly, "and Petunia didn't want to  
come. She said she would see you when you got back to the house."  
  
Mrs. Evans must have noticed Lily's disappointment because she said,  
"So tell me about everything! Did you like it?"  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Petunia looked fearfully out the window. What if someone saw her  
sister getting out of the car? Would she be wearing robes and a pointed hat?  
Petunia hoped not. She gasped as she saw her mothers car come pulling  
up the driveway. Clasping her hands in anticipation, she watched Lily get out  
of the car, looking just as normal as anyone. Petunia almost sighed, but then her sister pulled her owl, Tia, out of the back of the car. Petunia's eyes widened in horror as her trunk came out of the car, bearing the Hogwarts crest. She flung open the door and standing on the landing she yelled, "Get in right now before people see you!"  
  
Lily looked hurt for a moment but Petunia didn't wait around to see.  
She slammed the door and ran up to her room. Pulling a box out of her  
closet she slowly began to put her dolls away, she took her puppy poster off her wall and other things. Shoving it in the back of her closet, she flopped  
onto her bed.  
  
"I will not be weird!' she told herself out loud. "I will be normal  
just like everyone else. Lily is a freak. Having a sister who is a witch  
will just not do. I will NOT be a freak." And with that, she hopped off the bed, straightened her hair and left her childhood behind her.  



End file.
